'Suicides Seen in Healthy, Non-Depressed People Taking Lilly's Cymbalta'

[Guest guest]

'Suicides Seen in Healthy, Non-Depressed People Taking Lilly's

Cymbalta'

----------------------------------------------------------------------

----------

http://foodconsumer.org/7777/8888/D_rug_N_ews_50/041511342008_Suicides

_Seen_in_Healthy_Non-Depressed_People_Taking_Lilly_s_Cymbalta.shtml

" Suicides Seen in Healthy, Non-Depressed People Taking Lilly's

Cymbalta

By Martha Rosenberg

Apr 15, 2008 - 11:34:07 AM

Ask about published reports of 470 completed suicides of people on

antidepressants since Prozac debuted in 1988 www.ssristories.com and

the drug industry will say that's depression for you. Without our

drugs, it would be worse.

But how does Eli Lilly and Co. explain the mounting suicides of

people given Cymbalta (duloxetine) for urinary incontinence or

peripheral neuropathy?

The planned debut of Cymbalta, now Lilly's number two drug, was even

delayed by the suicide of a non-depressed person in 2004.

Traci , a healthy 19-year-old college student volunteer

enrolled in a Cymbalta trial hung herself by a scarf from a shower

rod in Lilly's Indianapolis, IN laboratory while withdrawing from the

drug.

showed no outward signs of depression and Lilly said she had

been screened for mental problems, but staff conducting a concurrent

Cymbalta trial made comments about her " mental history " to at least

four participants--perhaps to keep them from dropping out of the

trials as a fifth of volunteers did after the suicide.

After 's death, Lilly was ordered to stop accepting new

volunteers for the study and to have continuing participants

evaluated by an independent psychiatrist and sign new consent forms.

But in another Cymbalta trial of 4,124 depressed patients just weeks

later, four more participants took their lives according to a Lilly

clinical psychiatrist, Dr. R. .

Meanwhile reports from abroad where duloxetine was already in use as

a stress urinary incontinence treatment called Yentreve were just as

grave.

Twice the expected number of suicide attempts among middle aged women

were seen with the drug-- 400 per 100,000 person-years versus a

baseline of 160 per 100,000 person-years--said the FDA on its Web

site in June, 2005, leading Lilly to precipitously withdraw its

application to sell Yentreve in the US.

Safety data for Cymbalta and Yentreve obtained by reporter Jeanne

Lenzer under a Freedom of Information request for an Independent on

Sunday article disclosed 41 deaths and 13 suicides which did not

include 's or the four cited by , says Lenzer.

In fact in an article titled, " Duloxetine: new drug. For stress

urinary incontinence: too much risk, too little benefit, " in the

December 2005 issue of French medical journal Prescire

International, the authors conclude that the drug should not even be

in use:

" More than 40 different types of adverse effects have been reported,

including suicide attempts and potentially severe hepatic disorders.

(7) Duloxetine is metabolised by the cytochrome P450 isoenzymes CYP

1A2 and CYP 2D6, creating a risk of interactions with other drugs

that follow these metabolic pathways. (8) In practice, purely

symptomatic treatments that have no documented efficacy but many

adverse effects should not be used, especially when there is an

alternative treatment with a positive risk-benefit balance. "

The FDA approved Cymbalta for depression and diabetic peripheral

neuropathy in 2004 and generalized anxiety disorder in 2007. But

last fall it ordered Lilly to stop downplaying liver toxicity in its

promotional materials.

And an article in the January 2007 issue of Diabetes Care found

Cymbalta actually raises fasting blood glucose which can worsen the

diabetic peripheral neuropathy it is supposed to treat. (see:

depression; causes and effects)

Cymbalta has other side effects too say users in email messages to a

reporter.

In Jim Ellsworth, 52 of Houlton, Maine it caused a " hypertensive

crisis " that did not fully subside until a month after quitting the

drug he says.

It caused " involuntary twitching and jerking motions " that persist

three years after being off Cymbalta for fibromyalgia says Lonna.

And for Amy, who had no history of depression but was " given Cymbalta

for Attention Deficit Disorder, (which I haven't been able to find

anywhere that it is even approved for that) " it caused a withdrawal

in which she " went on rampages and cried over everything and felt so

sick and awful that I didn't think I wanted to live anymore. "

But worst are the out of character, almost matter of fact suicides

like a man described by his family as, " NOT depressed, he was a fun-

loving guy with all sorts of plans in place for the future, " who was

prescribed Cymbalta for foot pain.

He " had a normal day at work, drove home, said he was going to grab a

sandwich to his wife, and went and shot himself. "

With its number one drug, Zyprexa on the ropes--Alaska and Louisiana

sued Lilly for the Medicaid costs of treating Zyprexa-caused diabetes

and CEO C Lechleiter was caught promoting it off label by the

New York Times--Lilly is marketing Cymbalta like its pipeline depends

on it.

It used 500 sales reps from slick contract sales organization

Quintiles International to launch Cymbalta as well an unspecified

number of its own reps and hopes to get approval for fibromyalgia

while doctors are still writing the drug.

But bad press for Cymbalta might start sooner than Lilly expects--in

a wrongful death suit of Carol Gotbaum who strangled herself with

handcuffs while in police custody at the Sky Harbor International

Airport in Phoenix, AZ in September.

Press reports say the 45-year-old daughter-in-law of a New York City

elected official and prominent labor leader was under the influence

of Cymbalta. "

[Guest guest]

'Suicides Seen in Healthy, Non-Depressed People Taking Lilly's

Cymbalta'

----------------------------------------------------------------------

----------

http://foodconsumer.org/7777/8888/D_rug_N_ews_50/041511342008_Suicides

_Seen_in_Healthy_Non-Depressed_People_Taking_Lilly_s_Cymbalta.shtml

" Suicides Seen in Healthy, Non-Depressed People Taking Lilly's

Cymbalta

By Martha Rosenberg

Apr 15, 2008 - 11:34:07 AM

Ask about published reports of 470 completed suicides of people on

antidepressants since Prozac debuted in 1988 www.ssristories.com and

the drug industry will say that's depression for you. Without our

drugs, it would be worse.

But how does Eli Lilly and Co. explain the mounting suicides of

people given Cymbalta (duloxetine) for urinary incontinence or

peripheral neuropathy?

The planned debut of Cymbalta, now Lilly's number two drug, was even

delayed by the suicide of a non-depressed person in 2004.

Traci , a healthy 19-year-old college student volunteer

enrolled in a Cymbalta trial hung herself by a scarf from a shower

rod in Lilly's Indianapolis, IN laboratory while withdrawing from the

drug.

showed no outward signs of depression and Lilly said she had

been screened for mental problems, but staff conducting a concurrent

Cymbalta trial made comments about her " mental history " to at least

four participants--perhaps to keep them from dropping out of the

trials as a fifth of volunteers did after the suicide.

After 's death, Lilly was ordered to stop accepting new

volunteers for the study and to have continuing participants

evaluated by an independent psychiatrist and sign new consent forms.

But in another Cymbalta trial of 4,124 depressed patients just weeks

later, four more participants took their lives according to a Lilly

clinical psychiatrist, Dr. R. .

Meanwhile reports from abroad where duloxetine was already in use as

a stress urinary incontinence treatment called Yentreve were just as

grave.

Twice the expected number of suicide attempts among middle aged women

were seen with the drug-- 400 per 100,000 person-years versus a

baseline of 160 per 100,000 person-years--said the FDA on its Web

site in June, 2005, leading Lilly to precipitously withdraw its

application to sell Yentreve in the US.

Safety data for Cymbalta and Yentreve obtained by reporter Jeanne

Lenzer under a Freedom of Information request for an Independent on

Sunday article disclosed 41 deaths and 13 suicides which did not

include 's or the four cited by , says Lenzer.

In fact in an article titled, " Duloxetine: new drug. For stress

urinary incontinence: too much risk, too little benefit, " in the

December 2005 issue of French medical journal Prescire

International, the authors conclude that the drug should not even be

in use:

" More than 40 different types of adverse effects have been reported,

including suicide attempts and potentially severe hepatic disorders.

(7) Duloxetine is metabolised by the cytochrome P450 isoenzymes CYP

1A2 and CYP 2D6, creating a risk of interactions with other drugs

that follow these metabolic pathways. (8) In practice, purely

symptomatic treatments that have no documented efficacy but many

adverse effects should not be used, especially when there is an

alternative treatment with a positive risk-benefit balance. "

The FDA approved Cymbalta for depression and diabetic peripheral

neuropathy in 2004 and generalized anxiety disorder in 2007. But

last fall it ordered Lilly to stop downplaying liver toxicity in its

promotional materials.

And an article in the January 2007 issue of Diabetes Care found

Cymbalta actually raises fasting blood glucose which can worsen the

diabetic peripheral neuropathy it is supposed to treat. (see:

depression; causes and effects)

Cymbalta has other side effects too say users in email messages to a

reporter.

In Jim Ellsworth, 52 of Houlton, Maine it caused a " hypertensive

crisis " that did not fully subside until a month after quitting the

drug he says.

It caused " involuntary twitching and jerking motions " that persist

three years after being off Cymbalta for fibromyalgia says Lonna.

And for Amy, who had no history of depression but was " given Cymbalta

for Attention Deficit Disorder, (which I haven't been able to find

anywhere that it is even approved for that) " it caused a withdrawal

in which she " went on rampages and cried over everything and felt so

sick and awful that I didn't think I wanted to live anymore. "

But worst are the out of character, almost matter of fact suicides

like a man described by his family as, " NOT depressed, he was a fun-

loving guy with all sorts of plans in place for the future, " who was

prescribed Cymbalta for foot pain.

He " had a normal day at work, drove home, said he was going to grab a

sandwich to his wife, and went and shot himself. "

With its number one drug, Zyprexa on the ropes--Alaska and Louisiana

sued Lilly for the Medicaid costs of treating Zyprexa-caused diabetes

and CEO C Lechleiter was caught promoting it off label by the

New York Times--Lilly is marketing Cymbalta like its pipeline depends

on it.

It used 500 sales reps from slick contract sales organization

Quintiles International to launch Cymbalta as well an unspecified

number of its own reps and hopes to get approval for fibromyalgia

while doctors are still writing the drug.

But bad press for Cymbalta might start sooner than Lilly expects--in

a wrongful death suit of Carol Gotbaum who strangled herself with

handcuffs while in police custody at the Sky Harbor International

Airport in Phoenix, AZ in September.

Press reports say the 45-year-old daughter-in-law of a New York City

elected official and prominent labor leader was under the influence

of Cymbalta. "

[Guest guest]

'Suicides Seen in Healthy, Non-Depressed People Taking Lilly's

Cymbalta'

----------------------------------------------------------------------

----------

http://foodconsumer.org/7777/8888/D_rug_N_ews_50/041511342008_Suicides

_Seen_in_Healthy_Non-Depressed_People_Taking_Lilly_s_Cymbalta.shtml

" Suicides Seen in Healthy, Non-Depressed People Taking Lilly's

Cymbalta

By Martha Rosenberg

Apr 15, 2008 - 11:34:07 AM

Ask about published reports of 470 completed suicides of people on

antidepressants since Prozac debuted in 1988 www.ssristories.com and

the drug industry will say that's depression for you. Without our

drugs, it would be worse.

But how does Eli Lilly and Co. explain the mounting suicides of

people given Cymbalta (duloxetine) for urinary incontinence or

peripheral neuropathy?

The planned debut of Cymbalta, now Lilly's number two drug, was even

delayed by the suicide of a non-depressed person in 2004.

Traci , a healthy 19-year-old college student volunteer

enrolled in a Cymbalta trial hung herself by a scarf from a shower

rod in Lilly's Indianapolis, IN laboratory while withdrawing from the

drug.

showed no outward signs of depression and Lilly said she had

been screened for mental problems, but staff conducting a concurrent

Cymbalta trial made comments about her " mental history " to at least

four participants--perhaps to keep them from dropping out of the

trials as a fifth of volunteers did after the suicide.

After 's death, Lilly was ordered to stop accepting new

volunteers for the study and to have continuing participants

evaluated by an independent psychiatrist and sign new consent forms.

But in another Cymbalta trial of 4,124 depressed patients just weeks

later, four more participants took their lives according to a Lilly

clinical psychiatrist, Dr. R. .

Meanwhile reports from abroad where duloxetine was already in use as

a stress urinary incontinence treatment called Yentreve were just as

grave.

Twice the expected number of suicide attempts among middle aged women

were seen with the drug-- 400 per 100,000 person-years versus a

baseline of 160 per 100,000 person-years--said the FDA on its Web

site in June, 2005, leading Lilly to precipitously withdraw its

application to sell Yentreve in the US.

Safety data for Cymbalta and Yentreve obtained by reporter Jeanne

Lenzer under a Freedom of Information request for an Independent on

Sunday article disclosed 41 deaths and 13 suicides which did not

include 's or the four cited by , says Lenzer.

In fact in an article titled, " Duloxetine: new drug. For stress

urinary incontinence: too much risk, too little benefit, " in the

December 2005 issue of French medical journal Prescire

International, the authors conclude that the drug should not even be

in use:

" More than 40 different types of adverse effects have been reported,

including suicide attempts and potentially severe hepatic disorders.

(7) Duloxetine is metabolised by the cytochrome P450 isoenzymes CYP

1A2 and CYP 2D6, creating a risk of interactions with other drugs

that follow these metabolic pathways. (8) In practice, purely

symptomatic treatments that have no documented efficacy but many

adverse effects should not be used, especially when there is an

alternative treatment with a positive risk-benefit balance. "

The FDA approved Cymbalta for depression and diabetic peripheral

neuropathy in 2004 and generalized anxiety disorder in 2007. But

last fall it ordered Lilly to stop downplaying liver toxicity in its

promotional materials.

And an article in the January 2007 issue of Diabetes Care found

Cymbalta actually raises fasting blood glucose which can worsen the

diabetic peripheral neuropathy it is supposed to treat. (see:

depression; causes and effects)

Cymbalta has other side effects too say users in email messages to a

reporter.

In Jim Ellsworth, 52 of Houlton, Maine it caused a " hypertensive

crisis " that did not fully subside until a month after quitting the

drug he says.

It caused " involuntary twitching and jerking motions " that persist

three years after being off Cymbalta for fibromyalgia says Lonna.

And for Amy, who had no history of depression but was " given Cymbalta

for Attention Deficit Disorder, (which I haven't been able to find

anywhere that it is even approved for that) " it caused a withdrawal

in which she " went on rampages and cried over everything and felt so

sick and awful that I didn't think I wanted to live anymore. "

But worst are the out of character, almost matter of fact suicides

like a man described by his family as, " NOT depressed, he was a fun-

loving guy with all sorts of plans in place for the future, " who was

prescribed Cymbalta for foot pain.

He " had a normal day at work, drove home, said he was going to grab a

sandwich to his wife, and went and shot himself. "

With its number one drug, Zyprexa on the ropes--Alaska and Louisiana

sued Lilly for the Medicaid costs of treating Zyprexa-caused diabetes

and CEO C Lechleiter was caught promoting it off label by the

New York Times--Lilly is marketing Cymbalta like its pipeline depends

on it.

It used 500 sales reps from slick contract sales organization

Quintiles International to launch Cymbalta as well an unspecified

number of its own reps and hopes to get approval for fibromyalgia

while doctors are still writing the drug.

But bad press for Cymbalta might start sooner than Lilly expects--in

a wrongful death suit of Carol Gotbaum who strangled herself with

handcuffs while in police custody at the Sky Harbor International

Airport in Phoenix, AZ in September.

Press reports say the 45-year-old daughter-in-law of a New York City

elected official and prominent labor leader was under the influence

of Cymbalta. "

[Guest guest]

'Suicides Seen in Healthy, Non-Depressed People Taking Lilly's

Cymbalta'

----------------------------------------------------------------------

----------

http://foodconsumer.org/7777/8888/D_rug_N_ews_50/041511342008_Suicides

_Seen_in_Healthy_Non-Depressed_People_Taking_Lilly_s_Cymbalta.shtml

" Suicides Seen in Healthy, Non-Depressed People Taking Lilly's

Cymbalta

By Martha Rosenberg

Apr 15, 2008 - 11:34:07 AM

Ask about published reports of 470 completed suicides of people on

antidepressants since Prozac debuted in 1988 www.ssristories.com and

the drug industry will say that's depression for you. Without our

drugs, it would be worse.

But how does Eli Lilly and Co. explain the mounting suicides of

people given Cymbalta (duloxetine) for urinary incontinence or

peripheral neuropathy?

The planned debut of Cymbalta, now Lilly's number two drug, was even

delayed by the suicide of a non-depressed person in 2004.

Traci , a healthy 19-year-old college student volunteer

enrolled in a Cymbalta trial hung herself by a scarf from a shower

rod in Lilly's Indianapolis, IN laboratory while withdrawing from the

drug.

showed no outward signs of depression and Lilly said she had

been screened for mental problems, but staff conducting a concurrent

Cymbalta trial made comments about her " mental history " to at least

four participants--perhaps to keep them from dropping out of the

trials as a fifth of volunteers did after the suicide.

After 's death, Lilly was ordered to stop accepting new

volunteers for the study and to have continuing participants

evaluated by an independent psychiatrist and sign new consent forms.

But in another Cymbalta trial of 4,124 depressed patients just weeks

later, four more participants took their lives according to a Lilly

clinical psychiatrist, Dr. R. .

Meanwhile reports from abroad where duloxetine was already in use as

a stress urinary incontinence treatment called Yentreve were just as

grave.

Twice the expected number of suicide attempts among middle aged women

were seen with the drug-- 400 per 100,000 person-years versus a

baseline of 160 per 100,000 person-years--said the FDA on its Web

site in June, 2005, leading Lilly to precipitously withdraw its

application to sell Yentreve in the US.

Safety data for Cymbalta and Yentreve obtained by reporter Jeanne

Lenzer under a Freedom of Information request for an Independent on

Sunday article disclosed 41 deaths and 13 suicides which did not

include 's or the four cited by , says Lenzer.

In fact in an article titled, " Duloxetine: new drug. For stress

urinary incontinence: too much risk, too little benefit, " in the

December 2005 issue of French medical journal Prescire

International, the authors conclude that the drug should not even be

in use:

" More than 40 different types of adverse effects have been reported,

including suicide attempts and potentially severe hepatic disorders.

(7) Duloxetine is metabolised by the cytochrome P450 isoenzymes CYP

1A2 and CYP 2D6, creating a risk of interactions with other drugs

that follow these metabolic pathways. (8) In practice, purely

symptomatic treatments that have no documented efficacy but many

adverse effects should not be used, especially when there is an

alternative treatment with a positive risk-benefit balance. "

The FDA approved Cymbalta for depression and diabetic peripheral

neuropathy in 2004 and generalized anxiety disorder in 2007. But

last fall it ordered Lilly to stop downplaying liver toxicity in its

promotional materials.

And an article in the January 2007 issue of Diabetes Care found

Cymbalta actually raises fasting blood glucose which can worsen the

diabetic peripheral neuropathy it is supposed to treat. (see:

depression; causes and effects)

Cymbalta has other side effects too say users in email messages to a

reporter.

In Jim Ellsworth, 52 of Houlton, Maine it caused a " hypertensive

crisis " that did not fully subside until a month after quitting the

drug he says.

It caused " involuntary twitching and jerking motions " that persist

three years after being off Cymbalta for fibromyalgia says Lonna.

And for Amy, who had no history of depression but was " given Cymbalta

for Attention Deficit Disorder, (which I haven't been able to find

anywhere that it is even approved for that) " it caused a withdrawal

in which she " went on rampages and cried over everything and felt so

sick and awful that I didn't think I wanted to live anymore. "

But worst are the out of character, almost matter of fact suicides

like a man described by his family as, " NOT depressed, he was a fun-

loving guy with all sorts of plans in place for the future, " who was

prescribed Cymbalta for foot pain.

He " had a normal day at work, drove home, said he was going to grab a

sandwich to his wife, and went and shot himself. "

With its number one drug, Zyprexa on the ropes--Alaska and Louisiana

sued Lilly for the Medicaid costs of treating Zyprexa-caused diabetes

and CEO C Lechleiter was caught promoting it off label by the

New York Times--Lilly is marketing Cymbalta like its pipeline depends

on it.

It used 500 sales reps from slick contract sales organization

Quintiles International to launch Cymbalta as well an unspecified

number of its own reps and hopes to get approval for fibromyalgia

while doctors are still writing the drug.

But bad press for Cymbalta might start sooner than Lilly expects--in

a wrongful death suit of Carol Gotbaum who strangled herself with

handcuffs while in police custody at the Sky Harbor International

Airport in Phoenix, AZ in September.

Press reports say the 45-year-old daughter-in-law of a New York City

elected official and prominent labor leader was under the influence

of Cymbalta. "